Rams fall to North Marion

SPARR — Eastside’s season ended with a thud Friday night at North Marion High.

With a chance to play themselves into a 3A-5 tiebreaker, the Rams came up short, 34-20, to officially end their season at 3-7.

After an early 14-0 deficit, Eastside clawed its way back to a 20-all tie in the third quarter when quarterback Harold Hoskins plowed in from a yard out.

The senior scrambled 32 yards on 4th-and-7 one play prior to set up the tying touchdown.

From there, the Rams defense struggled to slow the Colts.

North Marion answered with a nine-play, 65-yard touchdown drive to retake the lead.

Following a three-and-out by the Rams, the Colts marched 64 yards on 11 plays before quarterback Chuckie Looney connected for his third TD pass of the night, a 28-yard strike to Latroy Pittman that effectively salted the game early in the fourth quarter.

“With our schedule, you’ve got to finish strong and limit your mistakes,” Coach Kent Johnson said. “We just made too many mistakes, too many turnovers. Sometimes the kids try to do too much in big games.

“We came out and played hard. I guess they did as best they could.”

With the win, North Marion (9-1, 3-0) claimed its seventh straight district crown. The Colts will host the 3A-6 runner-up in the quarterfinals in two weeks.

Hoskins added a 26-yard scoring strike to Raheem Watkins to his night.

Playing in his final football game for the Rams, Hoskins accounted for 94 total yards and two TDs.

“Harold is a good kid,” Johnson said of his quarterback. “Guys like that are hard to replace — a big guy who’s hard to tackle.

“Some (college) is gonna get a nice player.”

Watkins led the Rams rushing attack with 58 yards on six carries, including a 2-yad TD run.